Something stinks at Fresh Choice

What’s cooking at Fresh Choice on San Ysidro Avenue? It’s not soup or their trademark blueberry muffins.

It smells more like feces.

On Tuesday, Oct. 2, the restaurant was “closed for maintenance,” and an eviction notice was posted to the door with masking tape. A strong sewer smell permeated the whole parking lot at the north end of the Premium Outlets.

After numerous phone calls to Fresh Choice store managers and corporate staff who evaded questions and avoided calls, it is safe to say that the Morgan Hill based salad bar chain is going through some tough times.

The store’s regional manager, Jorge Varges, said the Gilroy store was closed for “plumbing repairs” having to do with the pipes, and said he knew nothing of any eviction, and that the store would reopen in a couple of days.

Varges said he would “find out” about the eviction notice and call back. Multiple calls to Varges were not returned.

Mike Gray, marketing director for Fresh Choice, also said he knew nothing about the eviction, but did say that the company filed for bankruptcy a few weeks ago, and the Gilroy location would not be reopening.

“The Gilroy location is one of the casualties of this Chapter 11 filing. We won’t be reopening it as a Fresh Choice, but maybe as a different restaurant concept,” Gray said.

Gray said that he didn’t know the details of why the company filed for bankruptcy, but that it was a combination of people cooling to the salad bar restaurant concept in recent years as well as some “internal problems.”

The eviction notice states that Fresh Choice must vacate the property by Wednesday, Oct. 6.